Daesh terrorists pull out of Syria’s Aleppo Province

Members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group have withdrawn from Syria’s northwestern province of Aleppo as government forces, backed by allied fighters from popular defense groups, are making territorial gain against the extremists and other foreign-sponsored terrorists in the region.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Friday that Daesh Takfiris have pulled out of 17 towns and villages, and are now effectively outside the province.

The media bureau of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement later announced that Syrian army soldiers and their allies had established full control over the Ithriya-Rasafa road and besieged Daesh’s positions east of Khanaser town.

Under the deal reached between the Syrian government and Takfiri terrorists in late March, the residents of Foua and Kefraya were taken to the outskirts of Aleppo City, while the terrorists and their supporters were transferred from Zabadani and Madaya near Damascus to terrorist-held territory in Idlib.

Nearly half a million Syrians have returned home: UNHCR

Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says nearly half a million displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the beginning of the current year.

The UN refugee agency said on Friday that it has recorded “a notable trend of spontaneous returns to and within Syria in 2017,” noting that most of these people are returning to check on properties and to find out about family members.

UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva that about 440,000 people had returned to Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus on the view that security had improved in those areas.

He added that some 31,000 Syrian refugees in neighboring countries had also returned home, bringing to 260,000 the number of refugees who have come back to Syria since 2015.

SS